Nat. Organization for Marriage: Big bucks anti-R-74

The controversial National Organization for Marriage, which has masterminded anti-same sex marriage campaigns in other states, has put another $199,970 into the campaign against Washington’s Referendum 74.

The NOM has now given $1.225 million to Preserve Marriage Washington, which has raised just under $2 million to fight the statewide ballot measure.

No state has ever voted to legalize marriage between two partners of the same gender. This year, however, in three states — Washington, Maryland and Maine — pre-election polls show marriage equality with support at or just over 50 percent.

The pro-Ref. 74 group, Washington United for Marriage, has raised more than $10.4 million. It has received a “challenge” donation from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who says he will give $250,000 if the R-74 campaign can raise that much.

And the nation’s most established gay/lesbian rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, has put in another $15,000 for a total of $991,497.

The National Organization for Marriage, which has strong ties to the Catholic hierarchy, was instrumental in come-from-behind victories by opponents of same-sex marriage in California’s Prop. 8 battle in 2008, and a year later when Maine voted narrowly against marriage equality.

During a legal battle over Maine’s campaign disclosure act, the NOM was forced to yield up internal campaign strategy documents which speak of a highly political divide-and-conquer strategy.

“The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies,” said one passage.

In another, the objective was to make opposition to marriage equality a badge of identity among young Latinos. “Our ultimate goal is to make opposition to gay marriage an identity marker, a badge of youth rebellion to conformist assimilation to the bad side of ‘Anglo’ culture,” the memo states.

The memo spoke of seeking to “identify the children of gay parents willing to speak on camera” against their parents.”

And another goal, headlined “Sideswiping Obama,” was to “raise issues such as pornography, protection of children and the need to oppose all efforts to weaken religious liberty at the federal level.”

The campaign against Referendum 74 has begun to air TV spots, and to produce videos. The state’s Catholic bishops are campaigning against marriage equality with pastoral letters and videos.